Spore

[Grumpmeister]

I've been catching some of the hype for this for a few months now and I admit it does sound intruiging. (Yes I know I'm going to be cast as a geek again) The idea of creating a virtual species from the very beginning as a single celled organism all the way through each stage of its evolution, sounds like something kids of all ages may enjoy, even the ones who have become follically challenged. 

Spore is one of the most eagerly awaited games in years and has both players and pundits watching its every move.

The game takes evolution as its broad theme and is the creation of famed developer Will Wright. Many believe it will change gaming just like his previous effort The Sims did.

Earlier this year the 100 millionth copy of The Sims was sold and it has been widely credited with improving the appeal of games to people who had never considered themselves players.

Mr Wright told the BBC he believed Spore will set the bar higher.

"Spore will change the way people look at games forever and change hopefully the perception people have of their own creativity."

The tool set in Spore gives players an unprecedented amount of creative control over the elements of the game - the creatures that populate it, the places they live, the clothes they wear and vehicles they drive.

"Will Wright and Spore are doing some things that are very unique and have the potential to shake up the way video games are created and even viewed by the public," said Brian Crecente, managing editor of online games magazine Kotaku.

'Creativity to the masses'

Early hints that Spore could live up to Mr Wright's expectations have been demonstrated by the number of species created for it with the free Creature Creator tool released in June.

Mr Wright's original target of 100,000 creations was history just 22 hours after the tool was launched. To date more than 2.6 million creatures have been created. Other similar tools will include a players' ability to create their own transport, clothes and music among others 
Spore opens up so many new avenues of what a game is said producer Thomas Vu

"Getting people to make content and having that content show up in the game is completely new for the industry, especially on this scale," said Spore producer Thomas Vu.

"Spore is bringing creativity to the masses where you as a consumer watch something on TV and say I can do something better than that, I can make a better space ship than that and you go on Spore and you can make something very compelling and even better in terms of design and scope," he said.

Spore sets players the task of using sophisticated tools to help their creations evolve from the cellular phase through a tribal stage into civilised beings and eventually a star-faring race.

Mr Wright said he saw Spore as changing the nature of gaming. 
Artificial Intelligence automatically works out how creations move.

"We see the players make and share content and we see the player as a co-developer," he said. "People are still getting used to the fact that they are creators as well as consumers and we see this in how people pick their own TV shows or their own music."

This collaboration is what will ensure Spore's success said industry watcher Dean Takahashi of VentureBeat.com.

"It's so easy to create a creature," he said. "You basically press a button and upload it to your YouTube account so everyone else can see your creature. No one else has made it that easy to do something in a game and show it off to your friends.

"That is really smart thinking on Electronic Arts' part and it shows they are really aware of all the changes that are happening around social networking and around games," he said. "This is a clever way to get games to take advantage of this big explosion in social networking."

Hit or miss

Electronic Arts and Maxis, the makers of Spore, will not say how much they spent developing the game although Mr Vu did admit that getting players to create much of the content could help balance the books, especially for future games. 
At the heart of the game is the ability to design and share creations

"In the industry a lot of people are looking at this game because development costs are definitely going up.

"If you imagine making something like a really cool creature can take a developer two weeks to do from scratch, but this system means somebody can make something just as compelling in two hours," he said. "This will definitely cut costs."

Spore could also have a future beyond its gaming origins.

Said Mr Wright: "We think of Spore as a brand and not just a product." He added that EA and Maxis were considering launching it as a separate label or franchise.

Mr Takahashi from Venturebeat said the business brains had to really think through how they went about promoting such a franchise.

"EA has made it clear about making Spore a big franchise with a series of follow-ons. But they have to be careful they don't over saturate the market.

"They are going to have an iPhone version for example and a lot of this kind of diversion could make Spore into a much bigger hit or a flop." 
Customizing options are to include transport, music, flora and clothing

Mr Crecente said if Spore lives up to the hype and sells as well as The Sims, it will be launched as its own platform.

"This means Spore will extend its reach and developers could buy the technology behind Spore and create their own games on that technology."

But before any of that can happen, Spore has to pass the ultimate test and prove itself as a game people want to pay for.

Mr Crecente said: "The problem for me is that no-one has had a chance to see the entire game. It's like four blind men describing a different part of an elephant.

"But with Will Wright you have to give him the benefit of the doubt and all indications are it will be big."

[Snoopy]

Whatever floats your boat 

[Grumpmeister]

I admit I'm curious about it but I was thinking it would be more for the puppies Snoop 

[Snoopy]

We don't do gaming 

I have conceded that they can have a Wii for Christmas  but that is it. Computer gaming is a no-no.

[Grumpmeister]

It does come out on the Wii hound. 

[Snoopy]

Now you have lost me ~ talk to the kids, they will understand you I 'spect.

[Nick]

que?

[Uncle Mort]

I’ve bought Spore for the sprogs.

Installation problems.

Put disk in the main machine (Vista) – installation program starts up ok, have to put in the code on the back of the manual, click to say I’ve read the T&C but of course I haven’t (who does?) it starts to install. Immediately fails to read the disk and keeps looping through the same files while the disk drive makes noises.  Stop installation, clean disk, try again. No go. Look on web for answers. As usual the forums are full of people having problems with Spore. Finally find someone with similar problem and it seems the install program is susceptible to any contaminate on the disk. Give disk a very good clean. Try again – it works! 

Anyway both children like the game so arguments over who can use the computer. Checking on the Spore site I see that I’m allowed to install it on up to three machines. So I say I’ll put it on the laptop as well.

Several attempts later, including a couple of total lockups and having to crash the machine I’m back on the web looking for more answers.
Spore site has suggestion of copying the entire disk to the hard drive and then running install from there. I start the copy process up but seeing the ridiculous amount of time it’s going to take I stop it. 
As I’ve got Explorer open on the disk I have a look at the files. I see the ‘set-up’ file so I try starting the install from there.
It only works! I can only think it wasn’t happy with ‘autorun’ 

So it installs on the laptop. I start it up and it tells me it needs Vista Service Pack 1 and an updated video driver. 

I upgrade the Vista but the driver program tells me there isn’t a newer version of the driver.

I start Spore and it seems to work. However, it locks every time it needs to put up a text box.

After fiddling around I discover that firing up taskmaster (alt-ctrl-del) lets the game proceed to the next time it wants to put up a text box. Back to the forums and find other people with the same problem. It is down to the video driver so I go to the nvidia site to try and find a newer driver. I find one, download it and start the install. Up pops a message to tell it doesn’t like the hardware configuration and quits. 

Back to the nvidia site. Eventually find a note that refers me to the Toshiba site as it seems that Toshiba have their own version of nvidia drivers for their laptops. 

The Toshiba site is very poorly laid out and more geared to promoting their wares than support but I eventually fine the download page. There is a newer version of the driver, which I download, unzip and install.

It only works! – Spore running perfectly – Children happy.

[Grumpmeister]

If you get the driver problem again Mort the best place to look is a site called Guru3d

[Uncle Mort]

Thanks GM.

The real grump is that you buy a game you expect it to work and not have to spend hours fart-arsing about to get it going. 

 

[Darwins Selection]

Fun for all the family then?

6 hours of headbanging for Mort and a few days fun for the kids, until something new comes along...

[Uncle Mort]

So true